Pirelli P-Zero Nero
Written: Jan 22 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good Name, Were on sale, Still Cheap in some places
Cons: Ride is horrible, Tramlining, Poor rain/snow grip. Horrible Hydroplaning
The Bottom Line: I dont reccomend these tires for anyone that has to drive in poor weather including rain or anyone who needs to drive on interstates or areas of large truck traffic.
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| DYQ685's Full Review: Pirelli P-Zero System Passenger/Performance Tire |
* Reason For Purchase
* Specs
* Overall Ride
* Overall Satisfaction
* Reason For Purchase
Let me start out by thanking you for taking the time to read and rate my review. Those of you who are familiar with my reviews know I haven't been here for a while but that's what happens when college rolls around. Now on to the review. As you may have seen I have a review on the Kumho Ecsta 712 tires which these Pirellis replaced. I bought these tires from Tirerack.com in order to replace my aged Kumho's which had suffered 20,000 miles high speed cornering miles, numerous burnouts at the track and some time in the snow. The Kumho's lasted me very well down to the very last burnout :). I had the same motivation for buying these as I did the Kumho. I wanted a high performance tire that didn't cost an arm and a leg since I'm still working on my show car. These were on sale and I thought to myself since they are "Pirelli" they must be good and that I should buy them since I thought they were a better brand name and at the time cheaper than the Kumho. Having this said I doubt I will buy another set of Pirelli tires.
* Specs
The Pirelli P-Zero Nero tires were designed to be a performance tire from the ground up. They are a member of the P-Zero collection which is Pirellis family of max performance tires. In addition to the PZero Nero, the "PZero Collection" also includes the PZero Rosso (ro' so Ð Italian for red) and the PZero System Directionale and Asimmetrico tires (many with a yellow logo) for sports cars, coupes and sedans. The P-Zero family of tires were designed to be driven hard and give you a chance to truly enjoy your vehicles potential. These tires feature a silica and carbon black tread compound molded into an asymmetric, wide rib design. This process increases the rigidity of the tread and allows for less deflection under extreme load. Also these tires feature twin steel belts which are reinforced by zero degree nylon to resist deforming at high speed which gives them such a high speed rating of W or Z speeds.
* Overall Ride
Alright first off I do run a very low profile tire 255/35/18 to be exact so I know I wont have BMW ride all the time. However having had the Kumho's before these tires I do have at least some comparison. When I first had these tires installed the rode about 20% softer than the Kumho's. However within about a week they rode rougher than the Kumho's by a long shot. They seem to get VERY stiff once you've heat cycled them a few times. Once they were broken in I found myself dodging manholes, expansion joints, and basically any road imperfection due to the reaction my spine had! These tires in my opinion do not ride very well at all. They are fairly noisy and don't absorb even the smallest bump. To give you and idea I can run over quarter size rocks and feel it very easily through the seat. Also the hydroplaning resistance is very poor. With the Kumho's I could hit large puddles and watch them shoot out the sides of my car. Not so with the Pirellis. With these the water would be thrown ahead of me and onto my windshield followed by a violent jerk in the direction of the puddle. On slightly wet roads I had to slow to a point of almost being in the way in order to not slide during cornering. Last but not least in cold weather such as below freezing the compound of these tires harden so much that even during normal acceleration I would spin substantially. In snow you might as well not have tires. Its like being on ice skates. Granted these are summer tires and are not designed for snow however they have little to no grip on even a light dusting. I found myself going 10-15 mph getting passed by cars easily going 30-35. They are not a good choice if you need to drive in anything except dry sunny weather. The final problem I have to mention about these is they are horrible for tram lining. If you get into an area that has heavy truck traffic you will be all over the road.
* Overall Satisfaction
Overall to be honest I will never buy another set of Pirelli Tires. I had a small problem with 2 of them. Right after installation 2 tires developed blisters on the sidewall. This was not due to installation error or impact as it was noticed before even mounting on the car. Well I tried calling Pirelli and they were very rude and told me I must have hit something (mind you the blisters were on the INSIDE of the tires not the curb side). After the run around with Pirelli which got me absolutely nothing I tried calling tire rack. They told me to call Pirelli. So I just gave up on it and kept them. This however give you an idea of what you might be dealing with quality wise. In closing in comparison to the Kumho's these are leaps and bounds behind them. I will not be buying another set for any of my vehicles and I would urge my fellow users to avoid Pirelli as well. Thank you for your time and please don't forget to rate:) Have a great day! DYQ685
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 550
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Epinions.com ID:
DYQ685
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Member: Dion Whitaker
Location: Somewhere, NC
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 22 members
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